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Cooperative Search and Localization Using Multiple Fixed Wing Unmanned Aircraft

Esmailifar, Majid | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: Ph.D. Dissertation
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 45989 (45)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Aerospace Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Saghafi, Fariborz
  7. Abstract:
  8. Nowadays, regarding the advancement of unmanned aerial vehicles and low cost sensors, the idea of utilizing a group of aerial vehicles to perform risky and complicated missions has attracted the attentions of researchers. One of the main subjects in aerial missions is target search and localization. Cooperative target search by the use of multiple aerial vehicles equipped with sensors, could construct a sensor network that makes the system more robust against failures and reduce noises and uncertainties. In addition, the observability and quality of sensor signals could increase if the motion and positions of the vehicles are intelligently optimized.In this research, establishing an information sharing network based on a known neighborhood law has been considered. Each flying vehicle in this group is separately guided to an optimum point which comes out of a self-organized routine by processing the shared information.The developed algorithm uses recursively two different modules including an estimator and a searching guidance law. The estimator fuses the shared observations and information in the network with the previous data to update the probability density function of the target’s desired states. Next, the guidance points, which are the best positions for the vehicles to be guided to, are calculated from this updated PDF regarding three different criteria including the best experienced point, the best detection point and the best informative point. The function of the searching guidance law is to direct the flying vehicle to the calculated guidance point. Updating the guidance point during flight makes the path, optimum based on the selected criterion.The performance of the developed search and localization algorithm has been evaluated in different conditions. These conditions include different environments such as marine and highland areas, different number of vehicles, different kind of guidance points and different number of targets. The results show that the developed algorithm can be used in all of these missions and in the most of them, it has satisfactory performance
  9. Keywords:
  10. Unmanned Aircrafts ; Sensor Network ; Cooperative Search and Localization ; Searching Guidance Law ; Monte Carlo Filter ; Guidance Points

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